The present invention relates to magnifiers and in particular to a sterile magnifier for operating room use.
Modern surgery often involves reconstruction of very small and detailed structures. Such reconstruction procedures often require delicate manipulation of tissue and/or bone using very specialized and tools (e.g., microsurgical instruments) having very small working ends, which are difficult to distinguish with the naked eye. Surgical technicians and others are required to properly identify multiple specific microsurgical instruments used during each step of such procedures. The surgical technicians must be able to quickly and properly identify and handle these microsurgical tools throughout a procedure and failure to quickly and properly identify microsurgical tools may lengthen the procedure, make the surgeon's job more difficult, or degrade the results. Unfortunately, increasing the length of such procedures may be a detriment to a patient's recovery or even place the patient's life at risk, for example when internal bleeding must be stopped.
Some medical procedures, for example a cataract extraction or other ophthalmic surgery, are generally performed with lights turned off in an operating room. The only lights that remain on are the microscope lights that the surgeon is using to provide light to perform the procedure. In this instance, lights normally provided for viewing instruments are not available. As a result, instrument selection is hampered by the difficulty in distinguishing specific instruments. The low light level may also make selection of a medicine difficult.